a perfect literary form...

Here's a blast haiku from the past:

11-26-00

The alter in church

  says "In remembrance of me,"

under plastic fruit.

--gh

people in general

Is this baby smoking a cigarette?

I do not know much about photography, or the visual arts in general. I really enjoyed these photographs, but wished they were in color. I did not see a link to send this street photographer any money to buy color film.

--gh

O Holy Night, the way you were meant to hear it.

I only have a few seconds before I need to teach a class, but I cannot hold this back from you.

This rendition of "O Holy Night" will move you to tears.

--gh

Mebald has been around a while...

I think this is over 5 years old, but people still comment on it.

It is Carmen's job to check on me every 3-5 years to see if I am combing over. BTW, I am back to the part on the right side thing. Forget Ginuwine... (see June 2003 archives)

Please don't comment...

--gh

Least Harm Principle suggests that Humans should eat beef not vegan.

I know that this is Corvallis, not Eugene, but it is still Oregon research. So which is it, vegan, or BEEF? Steve? Jen? Matt?

Any comments?

To follow the logic, you have to believe that the life of a cow and a mouse have equal value. I like cows and mice, so I guess I can go along with that. I have never saved a cow's life, or tried to resuscitate a cow. But many times I have sprung the traps that my secretary put out. (My mouse resuscitation of a victim of poisoning was not successful.) Hey, didn't blogger add spell check? Where is it? Did I spell resuscitate correctly?


--gh

Janus vs. a hole in the ground

Thanks to the 30-35% YTD returns of my Janus funds, I am for the first time experiencing a net gain in my investments. I am pleased that my total investing experience is outperforming the hiding of money in my mattress, or a hole in my wall.

Unfortunately, the personal bankruptcy applications have continued to sky-rocket. The yearly amount more than doubled during the 1990s, and it has not subsided. In fact, I heard that 1.6 million Americans have filed for bankruptcy in the last year. There is good news, business bankruptcy since 1999 has fallen over 6%.

On a related note, I am extremely pleased that my state's Attorney General, Jay Nixon, has filed suit against AmeriDebt for fraud. Jay Nixon has also organized the best No-Call telemarketing block list in the country. This guy is my hero.
--gh

Download your 50-Cent Ringtone here...

I seem to go through phases with *.mid files. I have always had a love/hate obsession with those little sonic jewels. I was utterly amazed by the online Midi Database's collection of files, especially Metallica. The rendition of Master of Puppets got me to change my CD from Parliament, which was on repeatedly for three weeks.

Then there are the uttlerly feckless attempts of midiality, such as this failed Wankster file:



Oh yeah... if you put that on your ring-tone you'll get stomped the first time mom calls.

--gh

Just one of those days...

Have you ever had one of those days, well...

--gh

Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast

I attended a children's piano recital on Sunday and was moved to tears three times. Two of these lacrimatious occaisions were for this tune:



--gh

File this under: "There mothers must be so proud"

Developing your beatbox might be a difficult thing to do, but I laughed my lungs out listening to these guys. Of course, Yuri, from Chicago is a GENIUS!

Listen to these and Comment if it did NOT bust you up:

Killa Kela (I spit mucous at the useless?)

Scratch Freestyle (my personal favorite)

RaHzel! (Do NOT miss this one, you have to get to the second half to hear singing and beatboxing at the same time...)

And you might remember a small duo called the Fat Boys!

--gh

More on the Jan Merks controversy

Please go to the review for Isaaks and Srivastava's book on Applied Geostatistics and find Mr. Merks bitter diatribe against geostatistics. If you are a registered Amazon.com user, please vote that his remarks were NOT helpful. (I guess I was the eleventh who thought not.)

It may be time to start blogging about Jan's evil arch-rival, Luc.
--gh

$20k for an essay that Fairly or mWarrenW could have written...

My favorite news/political magazine AND my favorite oil company (I guess?) have teamed up for an essay contest. The winners of the Shell-Economist essay contest get $20,000 for writing things like "Why Nature is Important." Sorry Mark A. , and John A., and Mike F. and Luc A., you missed your opportunity this year.

--gh

Let it be known that I will not share a table with John C. Calhoun

I try not to use the word "hate" often, but if I were to hate any historical figure, it would have to be John C. Calhoun. A "Canadien" made fun of me when I brought up the Civil War. His comment was that after studying in Alabama, he learned that the "War of Northern Aggression" is a stable dinner table conversation in the South...

I told another friend that John C. Calhoun loved slavery so much you can "see it dripping off of his face."


I know that he died in 1850 or something, but I still place most of the blame for that war on him, and President Buchanan. (Yeah, I don't care for him either.)

--gh
(P.S. sorry about being so political)

Bridge to Baghdad II

I showed the "Bridge to Baghdad" film featured on World Link TV last spring and summer in my geography class. This is the update, called Bridge to Baghdad II. My recomendation is to take an hour of your life and watch this compelling and real look at the aftermath of war.

This series goes beyond pithy remarks or politics. These are real kids, real lives, and now, without Saddam, they are free to speak their minds. One of my favorite parts is when Walid says "I can finally say this, I hate Saddam, Saddam sucks!" (In the first series, he could only say "Backstreet Boys are sucked!") My other favorite part is when Aisha states that the ministries of agriculture, education, health, etc. are all bombed and not functioning, but not one bomb fell on the Ministry of Oil. "Do you have an answer for that?" she says.

I commend Chat the Planet for their innovative approach to addressing real issues facing this world. I get tired of over-edited news stories by talking heads and professional journalists.
--gh

Jan W Merks's Reviews

Okay, it is obvious that Jan W Merks has a problem with geostatistics.

Mr. Merks, I promise that I won't use geostatistics to look for mineral deposits. Is that good enough for you?

--gh

The Smoking Gun: Archive

Oh yeah, I'd hire this guy!
--gh